By Michael Stephenson, President and CEO of StrikeForce Staffing
For years, employers have written job descriptions around an ideal candidate: a specific degree, a certain number of years of experience, industry knowledge, particular software expertise and a long list of preferred qualifications.
The problem is that the "perfect candidate" may not exist—or may already have several other options.
That is pushing some employers toward a more practical question:
What does someone actually need to know on Day One, and what can we teach them after they're hired?
Skills-based hiring has gained significant momentum. The Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School have documented employers removing degree requirements from job postings, although their research also found that changing requirements on paper doesn't automatically change who companies ultimately hire.
That's an important distinction.
Removing a degree requirement or shortening a qualification list accomplishes little if hiring managers continue screening candidates according to the old profile.
The 100% Match Can Be Expensive
Imagine two candidates.
Candidate A has spent eight years doing almost exactly the job you're hiring for.
Candidate B has five years of adjacent experience, strong underlying technical capabilities and has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to learn.
Candidate A may require less initial training.
But Candidate B could bring a different industry perspective, greater growth potential or capabilities your organization will need tomorrow.
The objective shouldn't be to lower standards.
It should be to distinguish between qualifications that predict success and qualifications that simply describe the person who previously held the job.
Why This Matters
Job requirements accumulate surprisingly easily.
A manager asks for five years of experience because the previous employee had five years. A degree becomes mandatory because it always has been. Familiarity with one particular software platform becomes a requirement even though an experienced employee could learn it quickly.
Eventually, the organization isn't describing the minimum requirements for success.
It's describing a unicorn.
Research from Harvard Business School and Burning Glass Institute found a substantial gap between employers announcing skills-based hiring changes and those changes translating into actual hiring outcomes.
That's why skills-based hiring has to extend beyond rewriting the job description.
Hiring Signal
Hire for what is difficult to teach. Train for what isn't.
A candidate's judgment, reliability, problem-solving ability, mechanical aptitude or ability to work with people may be substantially harder to develop than familiarity with a particular software package or internal process.
CTA
Take one position you're currently recruiting for.
Put every requirement into three categories:
Must Have — The candidate cannot succeed without it.
Can Learn — A capable employee could acquire it within 3–6 months.
Nice to Have — Helpful, but not essential.
Then rewrite the position around the first category.
You may discover that your viable talent pool is considerably larger than you thought.
How StrikeForce Can Help
StrikeForce helps employers look beyond the résumé checklist to identify candidates with the underlying skills, experience and potential to succeed—expanding the talent pool without lowering hiring standards.